novelraw Chapter 630: Preparation
Chapter 630: Preparation
Chapter 630: Preparation
“I think it’s most likely the latter. It completed its mission and then disappeared,” Jie Ming put down the salt grains and turned to look at the other wizards. “What I wanted to ask earlier was—where exactly is the main body of this thing?”
His words caused everyone present to fall silent for a moment.
The middle-aged male wizard in the deep blue robe walked to the stove and lightly tapped the wooden edge with his finger. “Indeed, that finger was only a terminal.”
“Strictly speaking, it was a one-time medium,” the curse witch nodded.
Her earlier analysis had been spot on. The finger was responsible for establishing the genetic connection and writing the curse into the victims’ souls.
Once the writing was complete, its task ended.
“So the reason Carl suddenly had an attack just now was because the finger released its final signal before being destroyed.”
Jie Ming looked toward the burly male wizard, who nodded in confirmation.
“And then it disappeared,” Jie Ming summarized. “Because it was temporarily created by some power in the first place. Once its purpose was achieved, there was no longer any need for it to exist.” Low murmurs of discussion rose in the kitchen.
The curse witch raised her head. Her pale gray eyes beneath the hood looked at Jie Ming. “You mean the Strange has no physical body?”
“At least not the finger,” Jie Ming said. “The finger was merely its tool, just like how we use sorcery artifacts to cast spells. Once a sorcery artifact is used, it can be put away, but the artifact is not the caster’s main body.”
“Makes sense,” the thin male wizard pinched the bridge of his nose. “The finger’s genetic material was highly similar to that of the Hans family, which suggests it was most likely one-time-use, only temporarily created after reading the corresponding information.”
The wizards nodded one after another.
The chain of reasoning was solid. Each of them had verified it with their own knowledge systems and found it to be the most probable hypothesis.
“Then the problem returns to the starting point,” the middle-aged male wizard in the deep blue robe crossed his arms. “Where is the main body of that Strange?”
“I suspect it has no fixed main body,” the curse witch said. She walked to the window, pushed it open, and the breeze stirred the edges of her cloak.
Outside the window was the street view of the town—stone slab paths, low houses, the distant spire of the hospital. Everything looked peaceful and harmonious.
Yet beneath this tranquility hid an indescribable sense of dissonance.
“Do you still remember the basic intelligence provided by Wizard Austin?” she continued. “In the mission description, he mentioned that these Strange rule phenomena ‘permeated’ over. Permeate—that word is key.”
Jie Ming pulled up the mission description on his magic network terminal and reread Austin’s original words.
“Several special rule phenomena have permeated over and infected my back garden.”
Permeate and infect.
“So this Strange—” Jie Ming said slowly, “or rather, the vast majority of these Stranges are not independent entities. They are more like… viruses. They have no form of their own but merge into the surrounding environment, using everything within the environment to spread themselves.”
“Exactly,” the curse witch nodded. “Under normal circumstances, they should have no concrete physical form and instead directly integrate into the surrounding environment. As for the range, it should be centered on this town, with unclear specific boundaries.”
“Only after certain conditions are met will it manifest a physical form—that finger,” the young female wizard picked up the thread. “Then it carries out its killings according to its own rules.”
“So what are the conditions?” the burly male wizard asked.
The wizards fell into thought once more.
“Genetic material,” Jie Ming said. “Or rather, the concept of ‘family.’ Haven’t you noticed? It only targets one family at a time. The Hans family and the previous forty-seven deaths were probably also killed in batches by family units. It does not attack the entire town at once, but goes family by family.”
“So it’s not that it likes to ‘play,’” the thin male wizard recalled Old Herman’s notes. “It’s simply a restriction of the rules.”
“How do we find it?” a wizard who had barely spoken before asked. “If it has no physical body and has merged into the environment, and we cannot directly flip the entire village upside down, how do we locate it?”
“We wait for it to appear again,” Jie Ming said. “Before it kills, it must first manifest—that finger. The moment the finger appears is when it is most vulnerable. We can use that instant to lock onto its main body, or at least lock onto its position.”
“But at this stage we don’t know how fast the curse is written after the finger appears,” the young female wizard frowned. “If it’s completed instantly, by the time we notice the finger, it may have already escaped.”
“So we need to prepare before it appears,” Jie Ming said. “We don’t necessarily have to wait for it to show up in a salt shaker. We can actively create the conditions for it to appear.”
“You mean—” the curse witch’s eyes brightened.
“Genetic material,” Jie Ming nodded. “Every time it manifests, it needs to borrow genetic information from the target family. If we use someone’s genetic material as bait and set up a sealed, controllable environment, we might be able to lure it into manifesting on its own.”
“It makes sense, but we’ll need time to design the experimental plan,” the middle-aged male wizard in the deep blue robe said. “Before that, we need to do one other thing first.”
He looked around, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the other eight wizards.
“Prevent it from escaping.”
No one objected.
Although according to the intelligence provided by Wizard Austin, most Stranges possessed traits similar to earth-bound spirits, with limited ranges of activity, no one dared guarantee that this Strange would not suddenly shift locations.
If it left this town and went to another town to continue killing, the nine wizards would lose a great deal of face.
“Deploy a barrier,” the middle-aged male wizard in the deep blue robe decided. “Isolate the entire town and a large surrounding area with a formation array. The energy level cannot be too high, but with our techniques, we can compensate for the insufficient energy level with skill.”
“I’ll take responsibility for designing the barrier,” the young female wizard raised her hand. “I’m quite familiar with energy barrier-type arrays.”
“I’ll assist you,” the thin male wizard said. “My microscopic structure analysis ability can help you optimize the node distribution of the barrier.”
“I’ll handle the outer framework of the barrier,” the burly male wizard flexed his fingers. Several rings on his fingers flashed with dark green light.
“I’ll go to the east side for detailed construction,” another wizard said.
“I’ll take the west side.”
“South side is mine.”
“North side, I’ll handle it.”
In the blink of an eye, the eight wizards had divided their tasks.
Finally, everyone’s gaze fell on Jie Ming.
“You stay here,” the middle-aged male wizard in the deep blue robe said. “I noticed earlier that you seem to have used some techniques related to fate-type knowledge. You are the most suitable to set up the bait and monitoring.”
“However, just in case, don’t set up the bait for now. Your current task is to remain in the center of the town, expand your spiritual power, and constantly monitor every corner of the entire town. The moment that finger reappears, notify us immediately.”
Jie Ming nodded.
The arrangement was very reasonable.
Just as this wizard had said, he had already stepped into fate-type knowledge, and with the assistance of the Fate Subsystem, he could quickly screen for abnormal signals among countless information streams.
If that finger appeared in any corner of this town, he should be able to capture it at the first moment.
“How long will it take to complete the barrier?” Jie Ming asked.
“If slow, one hour. If fast, it should be done within half an hour,” the young female wizard estimated. “The main issue is ensuring the energy level does not exceed the limit. Many places require fine techniques instead of violent output, so it will be a bit slower.”
“Then we’ll give it one hour,” the middle-aged male wizard in the deep blue robe glanced at the sky outside the window.
The amber light still spread evenly across the land. This plane had no day-night cycle, so time here had lost its reference.
“One hour later, we will gather at the center of the town and begin the trapping plan.”
The wizards said nothing more. They each turned into streaks of flowing light and flew off in different directions.
Jie Ming walked out of blacksmith Hans’s house and arrived at the square in the center of the town.
In the middle of the square stood an ancient stone fountain. The spring water was clear enough to see the bottom, and several red koi fish swam leisurely within it.
Around the fountain was a square paved with stone slabs. Several stone paths extended in all directions from here, leading to every corner of the town.
There were not many people in the square at the moment.
Occasionally one or two residents passed by. When they saw Jie Ming standing beside the fountain, they only gave him a curious glance before continuing with their own affairs.
After all, due to the recent Strange incident, the entire town was in a state of anxiety. No one had the energy to concern themselves with other matters.
Jie Ming sat cross-legged on the stone edge of the fountain.
He closed his eyes. His spiritual power surged out from within his body like a tide, spreading in all directions.
Wherever his spiritual power passed, every house, every street, every tree, and every person appeared in his perception with extreme detail.
He could sense a certain housewife chopping vegetables in her kitchen, the blade of the kitchen knife having a slight rolled edge. He could sense an old man dozing in a rocking chair, his breathing rhythm steady. He could sense two children chasing each other in an alley, one of them with a loose shoelace.
His spiritual power continued to expand, covering the entire town and then extending to the fields, forests, and rivers outside.
At the same time, the Fate Subsystem began to operate.
The information processing network of the Incense Fire Divine Dao ran at high speed deep in his consciousness, incorporating every information stream captured by his spiritual power into analysis.
Relying on the fate-type knowledge he was familiar with, Jie Ming seemed to see countless causal lines intertwining and colliding within a virtual network.
His gaze grew profound as he continuously screened through the many causal lines. Any trace of abnormality would be marked.
Jie Ming sat motionless beside the fountain.
Like a spider weaving its web, waiting for its prey to touch the strands.